1. Field
Embodiments relate to an apparatus and method for feeding back a three-dimensional (3D) force vector, a texture, and the like to a sensory organ of a human being, and more particular, to an apparatus and method for transferring feedback information about a force vector, a texture, and the like to a tactile organ of a human being by expressing the feedback information as a physical movement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Equipment used for tasks or surgeries, among industrial equipment or medical equipment, performed by controlling a robot at a remote distance has been generalized. A field associated with the foregoing is referred to as a tele-operation field.
However, when the robot is controlled by a human, a physical quantity representing a tension, a load, or another force that is currently being applied to the robot may not be fed back to the human controlling the robot in a form of a tactile sense due to a unidirectional feedback of a force.
Conventionally, research on a feedback of a force with respect to a load of a moving direction or bending of a robot joint has been conducted actively. However, research on a feedback of an intuitive physical quantity by transferring a tactile sense to human skin has been conducted relatively infrequently.
In a computer simulation for education or entertainment, as well as a robot control field, a tactile feedback may be used to perform a simulation providing a much greater sense of reality by feeding a virtual physical force back to a hand or skin of a human so that the human may experience a tactile sensation.
A technique for feeding back a force or tactile sense is also referred to as haptic feedback. In this instance, the more delicately a force applied to an object or a robot is fed back to a finger of a human, the more sophisticatedly the object or the robot is controlled.
Accordingly, there is a need for a technology for delicately feeding back force applied to an object or a robot.